Brian Charlesworth
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5751
- Email: brian.charlesworth@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Rm. 115, Ashworth Building
- City
- Post code
Background
1966 BA in Natural Sciences (1st Class Honours), University of Cambridge
1969 PhD in Genetics, University of Cambridge
1969 - 1971 Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Chicago
1971 - 1974 Lecturer in Genetics, University of Liverpool
1974 - 1982 Lecturer in Biology, University of Sussex
1982 - 1984 Reader in Biology, University of Sussex
1985 - 1992 Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago
1992 - 1997 G.W. Beadle Distinguished Service Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago
1997 - 2007 Royal Society Research Professor, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
2007 - 2010 Professor and Head of Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
1991 Fellow of the Royal Society
1996 Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1999 President, Society for the Study of Evolution
2000 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Darwin Medal of the Royal Society
2006 President, Genetics Society (UK), until 2009
2006 Sewall Wright Award, American Society of Naturalists
2007 Frink Award, Zoological Society of London
Undergraduate teaching
Genomes and Genomics (3rd year): 3 lectures
Evolutionary Biology Honours Elective: The Evolution of Sex and Breeding Systems (4 lectures and 2 discussions)
Genetics Honours Elective: Topics in Evolutionary Genomics (4 lectures and 2 discussions)
Postgraduate teaching
MSc in Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis: 13 lectures, 1 tutorial and 3 discussions)
Research summary
My general area of research is in evolutionary genetics, which is concerned with the application of classical and molecular genetics to the study of evolution and natural variation. My group carries out both theoretical and experimental research, using theoretical ideas to motivate the experiments, and experimental data as stimulant for the development of theory. My recent research has focussed on three main areas: molecular evolution and variation, the evolution of genetic and sexual systems, and the quantitative genetics of life-history traits. Each of these areas illuminates the others. I am currently especially interested in the nature of the evolutionary process in genomes or genomic regions with low rates of genetic recombination, and am using theoretical models and studies of DNA sequence evolution and variation to study this problem. I am also interested in the problem of estimating the extent and intensity of selection on non-synonymous, synonymous and non-coding mutations.
Research activities
- Edinburgh International Science Festival (cancelled: Covid-19)
- Gulbenkian Institute of Science, Lisbon to
- Lecture to A-level students on 'The evolutionary significance of sexual reproduction'
- 46th Population Genetics Group Meeting to
- University College London (External organisation)
- BBSRC to
- 20th Annual Meeting of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution to
- Seminar on the Effects of Genetic Recombination on Molecular Evolution and Variation
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (External organisation) to
- The 45th Population Genetics Group meeting to
- 18th Annual Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology to
- 17th Meeting of European Students in Evolutionary Biology to
- President of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology to
- Annual Meeting of French Genetics Society to
- The 44th Population Genetics Group meeting to
- Public lecture on evolution of sex
- Annual Meeting of German Genetics Society to
- Symposium on the Molecular Biology of Sex and Reproduction
- BBSRC Summer School in Molecular Evolution and Variation to
- 18th Meeting of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution to
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Population genetic considerations regarding evidence for biased mutation rates in Arabidopsis thaliana
(6 pages)
In:
Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 40
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac275
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
How can we resolve Lewontin's Paradox?
(19 pages)
In:
Genome Biology and Evolution, vol. 14
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac096
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Recommendations for improving statistical inference in population genomics
(23 pages)
In:
PLoS Biology, vol. 20
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001669
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The effects of weak selection on neutral diversity at linked sites
(18 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 221
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac027
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Fisher’s historic 1922 paper On the dominance ratio
(8 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 220
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac006
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The impact of purifying and background selection on the inference of population history: Problems and prospects
(18 pages)
In:
Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 38, pp. 2986–3003
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab050
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Evidence for a force favoring GC over AT at short intronic sites in Drosophila simulans and Drosophila melanogaster
(32 pages)
In:
G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics, vol. 11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkab240
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
On the fixation or nonfixation of inversions under epistatic selection
(2 pages)
In:
Molecular Ecology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16026
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
The outstanding scientist, R.A. Fisher: His views on eugenics and race
(12 pages)
In:
Heredity, vol. 126, pp. 565-576
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-020-00394-6
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Toward an evolutionarily appropriate null model: Jointly inferring demography and purifying selection
(20 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 215, pp. 173-192
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.119.303002
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Patterns of genetic variability in genomic regions with low rates of recombination
In:
Current Biology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.047
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The determinants of genetic diversity in butterflies
(9 pages)
In:
Nature Communications, vol. 10, pp. 1-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11308-4
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The importance of the Neutral Theory in 1968 and 50 years on: a response to Kern and Hahn 2018
(4 pages)
In:
Evolution: International Journal of Organic Evolution, vol. 73, pp. 111-114
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13650
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
Mutational load, inbreeding depression and heterosis in subdivided populations
In:
Molecular Ecology, vol. 27, pp. 4991-5003
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14933
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Neutral variation in the context of selection
(3 pages)
In:
Molecular Biology and Evolution, vol. 35, pp. 1359-1361
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy062
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Use of high-density SNP data to identify patterns of diversity and signatures of selection in broiler chickens
In:
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, vol. 134, pp. 87-97
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbg.12228
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Hubby and Lewontin on protein variation in natural populations: When molecular genetics came to the rescue of population genetics
(7 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 203, pp. 1497-1503
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.185975
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Population genetics from 1966 to 2016
In:
Heredity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2016.55
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Resolving the conflict between associative overdominance and background selection
(20 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 203, pp. 1315-1334
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.188912
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Inferring the frequency spectrum of derived variants to quantify adaptive molecular evolution in protein-coding genes of Drosophila melanogaster
(22 pages)
In:
Genetics, vol. 203, pp. 975–984
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.188102
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
ISBN: 978-0981519425